The CYDSTEPP glyph is used to grant Death protection, enabling yourself to survive attacks that would otherwise kill you. Death protection is almost completely foolproof, and it will enable you to survive any attack no matter how powerful. For this reason, the CYDSTEPP glyph is highly prized when fighting high-damage bosses such as Bleaty the Goat.

Unlike the alpha version of this glyph, you must be at 50% or more health in order to cast CYDSTEPP, making the spell more difficult to use in the middle of a fight. The sole exception to this rule is the Warlord, which can activate CYDSTEPP at any time. This enables Warlords to continually chain death protection even when they are at 1 HP.

There are only two type of effects in the game that can overcome death protection. The first is the swift hands class feature of the Assassin, which is not a concern to human players but a good thing to keep in mind when dealing with Animated Armor. The other effects are godly punishments. Death protection will not save you from the wrath of the Metal Spider.

Strategy

The usual strategy with the CYDSTEPP glyph is to use it as a prebuff before battle, to allow you to eke out one extra attack in combat. In this respect, it's often very similar to the GETINDARE or ENDISWAL glyphs which can also be used to get one extra attack in combat. It's entirely possible to combine CYDSTEPP with other prebuffs to empower yourself before battle, making it an exceptionally useful glyph for damage-spiking striker-type characters.

CYDSTEPP has the highest mana cost of any glyph in the game by a considerable margin. In fact, it's so high that the Berserker cannot even cast this spell until he's found multiple mana boosters. This also causes a problem for Taurog Worshippers, who lose the ability to use this glyph once they obtain all of his gear, and this hurts all the more since CYDSTEPP is otherwise one of the best glyphs a Taurog worshipper can obtain. Mystera Annur's Mystic Balance boon is one way to reduce the cost, and of great value to Warlords in particular since it's a lot easier to get to 16 mana to cast twice during a fight than 20.

Because CYDSTEPP functions the same way no matter how powerful the incoming attack is, it works best against enemies with high attack damage. This means that CYDSTEPP often is less useful in low-difficulty dungeons than it is in high-difficulty dungeons. It's also very useful if you're attempting to kill a boss as a low-level character, since it's effectively the only way to survive an attack from a foe that deals enough damage to kill you twice over.

The cost of activating the glyph means that prebuffing can be very expensive on exploration. In the later part of the game as unexplored area becomes scarce, deciding whether or not to spend 10 mana on this effect becomes a serious problem. There comes a point where most classes will want to convert this glyph rather than continue to spend copious amounts of mana on it.